Art & Illustration

Artsnacks March Box Review

This March marks Artsnacks’ 5th birthday, so the box had an extra special gift inside. It’s not hard to see why they are celebrating their 5th year in business with the awesome products they send out in their curated boxes. I’m really looking forward to these deliveries every month and sharing with you what’s inside, so let’s check it out!

Items in the Box

Artsnacks Pencil Case & Birthday Sticker Sheet

Copic Ciao Double Ended Marker

Copic Multi Liner

Lyra Color Giants (2)

The Snack – Warheads Extreme Sour – Watermelon

PerformanceThis month’s box was right up my alley in terms of including types of products that I would typically use for one of my colored pencil mixed media pieces. Once again it included Items I hadn’t used before and most of them performed well above my expectations.

Artsnacks Pencil Case & Sticker SheetI love that this was the added gift in this month’s box. What artist doesn’t need another pencil case, right? It also is a great place to keep some the items that come in the Artsnacks boxes, if you want to keep them all together. The dual zippered pockets are black on the inside, which is a great choice for keeping the inside looking clean. The zipper quality is great as well. The outside is nylon and features The Artsnacks logo and their signature teal blue color. It’s very apparent that careful thought and selection were put into the materials that make up this pencil case and that’s always a great sign.Normally the box includes a sticker of their pencil pretzel logo, but this time around they have a whole sticker sheet design by artist Madison Reynolds who is also credited on the sticker sheet. A nice touch as well.Copic Ciao Double Ended MarkerCopic has a great reputation for being one of the best high-quality alcohol based markers on the market. This dual-tipped marker has a medium broad chisel tip on one end and a super brush on the other.I did a few quick tests with both of the nibs and they each offer a different range of mark making abilities. One thing to note is that if you’re not a fan of smelly markers, this one definitely has a bit of an odor. While it’s not the worst out there you wouldn’t want to use these for too long if you are sensitive to certain smells. I also noticed that in combination with the Strathmore Mixed Media paper this marker bled a fair amount. I did like the coverage though and it made for a relatively uniform finish.

Copic Multi LinerThis pen was a pleasant surprise. I had bought aCopic Multi Liner before and wasn’t super impressed with it, but this one was really great. The ink came out smoothly and uniformly and the nib felt pretty durable. It’s also archival and waterproof which is a bonus if you plan to use this with wet media. The menu card recommended using this before using colored pencils to avoid smearing which I did, but I also used it on top of the Lyra Color Giants with success.

Lyra Color Giants (2)There seems to be a trend in the art supply world that involves oversized products. Maybe I just missed the memo on this one but it seems to be something I’m seeing a lot of lately. Lyra has a very Prismacolor- like feel to its product in my experience. The color giants, in particular, are meant to be for large area coverage. I have to say I liked these a lot more than I thought I would. The finish was smooth and because of the larger size, I didn’t feel like I had to sharpen it at all. It held a point well and lasted a significant amount of time longer than a normal sized pencil would.A disappointing feature of this products was again the specific color being denoted by a number instead of a name. (This is clearly becoming a pet peeve of mine.) The last time I had to associate a number with something specific was when I had to memorize produce codes as a cashier in a grocery store when I was a teenager. Not really a fan of doing that with my art supplies. I somehow feel like it takes the romance out if it as well. I mean, it’s so much fun saying Chartreuse! 😉

Final Result & Thoughts
Overall I felt like the items in this box were pretty solid. My favorite items where the pencil case and the Copic Multi Liner. Least favorite was probably the Copic Ciao Marker because of the bleed and odor the marker gives off. That’s not to say I wouldn’t give those markers a try again, I just wasn’t as immediately blown away as I was expecting. For that reason, I feel like this is a “more exploration needed” product. Copic markers also have a lot of redeemable qualities from a construction perspective in that the tips are replaceable and they are refillable. They get major points for making an effort to reduce waste and that is also a motivator for me to give them more of a chance.

Stay tuned for my next review and in the meantime check out the companion video below!

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2 thoughts on “Artsnacks March Box Review”

This does seem like a box made just for you. Did you feel like the giants were comfortable to hold? Seems like the larger size might get cumbersome (but that’s coming from a natural-born klutz). Love the daffodils!!!

I actually didn’t mind the feel of the color giants! I wasn’t doing super detailed work with them though. That be no said that’s not really what they are meant for either. Surprisingly though the bigger size doesn’t feel awkward which I was impressed with. I imagine if you had small hands though it might be different.